RTN Community: Inspiring Us to Keep Up Our Work!

Mariana here, your community manager! We love receiving mail about how Roadtrip Nation has touched others. It inspires the whole crew to continue to spread the word! Thanks for the kind words, Nick–and the inspiration!

“Hi there! My name is Nick and I discovered The Green RV on my college campus last year, when one of your awesome recruiters stuck a hat on my head and pulled me in to tell me about what your movement is all about. I’m writing know to share with you how I’m defining my own road:

On the day that I met your team at Stanford, I was a senior in the midst of deciding what to do after graduation. I was fortunate to have some job offers, but my decision wasn’t as simple as just picking between them. Something else was calling me and a line at the end of your Manifesto: “Listen to yourself. Your road is the Open Road. Find it” helped me make the final decision.

For the last 8 months, I have been helping my grandparents finish building a beautiful adobe house on a ranch in New Mexico. Their beautiful adobe house. Owning a cattle ranch in the mountains of NM had been a lifelong [pipe] dream of my now 84 y/o grandfather, who spent his life working day-labor in the fields, digging roads, and doing any number of other things to keep his family afloat. Well, my father (who has an amazing life story of his own) was able to make that dream a reality for his parents when he bought them the ranch 7 years ago. The building of the house began, and despite the dissuasion of my family, my grandfather vowed that he would carry out the project without the help of any hired work. Between school and internships, I spent three weeks of every summer at the ranch helping build and manage the cattle, but all these years later, with the degeneration of my grandfather’s strength and abilities, it felt that the house would never be finished. Today, after 8 months stuccoing, sawing, drilling, building, installing and painting, I can proudly say that we’re on the final stretch and the house should be done by July. What’s more, I was recently accepted to my one dream graduate programs (the only school I applied to) and come September, I’ll be starting a MSc. in Sustainable Aquaculture in Stirling, Scotland.

Thank you for inspiring me to make the right decision and define my own road. The memories of working alongside my grandfather to fulfill his dream will forever live on in me and the beautiful home on the ranch, which will be with our family for generations to come.